JHS Spanish students travel to Spain

Jamestown High School Spanish students Ashley Meier, Carissa Finck, Grant Curtis and Nichoal Gordon along with their teacher, Jay Nitschke, recently returned from a trip to Spain.

The students left June 19. In Spain they joined students from Dallas (Ore.) High School, Andover High School, North Plains, Minn., Cretin Derham Hall High School, Minneapolis, Minn., and from Davis High School, Fargo.

The group spent the next three days in Madrid and Segovia. There they immediately put their Spanish to work completing a scavenger hunt that required them to use the metro, and to Segovia to visit the Alcazar de Segovia, the Roman Aqueducts and the Gothic Cathedral that was built in 1525.

Upon returning to Madrid they spent the evening visiting some of the plazas and enjoying the Spanish cuisine. The next two days were spent taking a tour of the Palacio Real (Royal Place) and viewing the famous paintings in the Pardo and Ana Sophia museums. Another highlight of their time in Madrid was the opportunity to have supper at the Botin restaurant which was founded in 1725 and is listed in the Guinness book of records as the oldest continuously running restaurant in the world. In addition, they enjoyed seeing the cities fountains and statues as well as shopping.

Traveling from Madrid the group headed to Toledo which is known as the city of three cultures, which refers to the Christian, Islamic and Hebrew cultures. There they visited the Toledo Cathedral, the Prada and the home church of the famous painter El Greco which houses some of his famous paintings of Jesus Christ.

They also were able to visit a factory where they make the swords of Toledo along with the black jewelry that has gold images placed in them by hand. Then they traveled to Granda to see the Alhambra and the Cathedral of Granda. From there the group went to Sevilla to visit the cathedral and attend a Flamenco Show.

Next on the list was a journey to Cadiz which is located in the coast of the sun section of Spain. There the students meet their host families from the region. They stayed with their Spanish families for five days learning firsthand how modern Spanish families live. While there the Spanish Madrid soccer team played in the national finals winning the event.

On the return to Madrid the students were able to see the team make their parade entrance into their home city. Many were able to see the national soccer cup trophy the team was displaying. Then group flew home.

Nitschke said the Fargo and Jamestown students were happy to land at the Jamestown airport after some negotiations between their trip organizers and Nitschke.

Tags: life, education